Navigation tab interfaces have become increasingly important to user interfaces as applications and systems continually provide an ever-increasing number of windows, panels, and frames for viewing on a display screen. Tabs to notebook-style panels allow the user to quickly change the panel that is displayed, while covering the previously displayed tabbed panel within the same display area. Often the tabs convey little information beyond the title of the associated panel. In a few cases the tabs present alert indicators, such as, for example, a red ‘X’ to indicate a field is missing or wrong on the underlying panel.
There is also a trend toward use of multiple frames within a panel. Multiple frames within a panel allow for denser and more varied display of information and controls within the user interfaces per the space displayed in the panel. This ever-increasing panel segmentation and density also extends to tabbed notebook-style panels.
Notebook-style panels are easily accessible with a small-access point for the tab, so that only a relatively small tab is constantly exposed as the footprint and selectable area to display the underlying panel. Notebook-style panels provide a way to quickly display another user interface panel, potentially, with multiple frames.
Notebook-style panels are a good alternative to providing a full size window with all its associated panels and frames simultaneously displayed. If all panels and frames associated with a full size window are displayed together simultaneously, the content may be too much to fit within some display screens. Additionally, the spread-out format of a full size window showing all the information in the panels and frames associated with the full size window make it difficult for a user to find the information of interest.
It is sometimes desirable for the user to focus solely on one user interface frame at a time. For this the user might want to quickly convert the frame (e.g., a monitoring portal) to full size to see more details and control options and then, when the user is done focusing on the full-size frame, quickly switch back to a smaller frame, which displays higher level information containing less detail. It is further desirable to scale the amount of status information and the level of controls within a tab navigation frame to provide more than the title or more than the title, small icon, and alert indicator.